


Star Trek: Invisible Light

by YelyahLiana



Category: Star Trek
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Aliens, Battle, Canon-Typical Violence, First Contact, Gen, Original Character(s), Post 2400, Post-Canon, Science Fiction, Space Flight, Spatial Anomaly, Star Trek Aliens, Star Trek References, Starship Crew, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23732944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YelyahLiana/pseuds/YelyahLiana
Summary: The story follows the crew of the U.S.S. Arlandria, a Polaris Class starship in the year 2404. However, after a routine exploration mission at the Rosetta Nebula, things take a strange turn.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Star Trek: Invisible Light

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story simply set in the Star Trek universe in 2404. All the characters, ships and locations are my own creations. So don't expect any famous faces! There may be some small grammatical or spelling errors I missed in the editing phase, so my apologies in advance! I hope you enjoy. This is my first completed 'short' story and my first time using Archive of Our Own.
> 
> (I wrote this in Word, so the format does differ slightly on here. That aside, I am hoping it is still readable and it all works as intended. If not, I'll have to do some organizing.)
> 
> If you would like to contact me about anything Instagram is a good place at "songs_of_kahless" and I will get back to you!

It was Sunday; a light and brisk aura filled the recycled air. Jack knew it was Sunday. But he was assuming the rest. And overthinking it all. Turning away from the curving glass and back to the bathroom mirror, he could see the speckled blackness in its reflection over his shoulder, a splattering of red light crawling its way up from the bottom. It had been a stunning fifteen days; he couldn’t deny that. But draining, so much so he didn’t feel the need to dry his face, for the quarters were warm and it would soon evaporate into the air, before that was then promptly recycled and spat out into someone else’s quarters.

Dreams of exploration never quite showed all the in-between bits; being in essentially the same spot for two weeks was bad enough, add in the extra four-day delay and it could really sharpen the doubt. Not that he had any doubt, at least nothing that getting under way again wouldn’t soon kick in the teeth. And that day had finally arrived.  
Walking out through the doors of the bathroom he glanced over to an elongated window. It dominated from top to bottom of the room, separating him from the cold vacuum it kept at bay. He walked over to the window, standing close enough that his breath misted over the glass, but still he could see the Rosetta Nebula - the reason they were even there. It was breath-taking, even after spending every hour of the past few days studying it, but that was the difference – when studying something the beauty had to be ignored. A simple click of the brain into gear and the rest became irrelevant. Everything is appreciated a lot more when the analysis gets turned off to take a step back and look again. Jack’s pining over the inanimate was interrupted by the dramatic combadge.  
“Captain to the Bridge.”  
The four simple words were common, sometimes said with urgency, some said with disdain, some said with wonder. That was none of those. Alisha sounded relieved, as much as any other of the fifteen hundred people onboard. Coming out of the trance Jack mustered a reply of “On my way, Commander.” before spinning and taking a sturdy walk towards the hissing doors of his quarters. The corridor was bristling with people in a pleasing way, there was no feeling of claustrophobia even on a ship with so many, and it was always incredible to him the amount of different species he saw. Klingons; one of the federations oldest adversaries, were becoming a common sight throughout Starfleet, and they always looked pissed off. The same could not be said for the Orions, Andorians or even most human officers, Jack got smiles and acknowledgement from most, with the Andorians having a habit of using their antenna. The Romulans were still an uncertainty however. They were good, capable officers, plus ever since the Hobus incident and the resultant loss of their homeworld, more had chosen to join their much more prevalent Vulcan ‘brothers’ in the Federation. But Jack had had the job of defusing tensions between the cousin species on more than one occasion. Nevertheless, the turbolift awaited. As the doors slid open an ensign holding an impressive amount of Padds was stood inside, noticeably struggling. A voice from behind the pile came out with a proud,  
“Deck Eight.”  
“Ensign, it looks you might have my job there, who else on this ship possibly needs that many Padds at one time?” Jack inquired, raising an eyebrow and gently sweeping a pile from the Ensign’s wobbling arms. An expression of relief crashed its way onto the young officer’s face.  
“Thank you, Sir! And I’m sorry, I didn’t realise it was you. I couldn’t really see over these. They are for the Councillor; she needed this week’s reports redone before 0900” His breath cheery but a little winded. As Jack got his armload of Padds, the turbolift resumed on its previous course, the movement being slightly off-putting in balance for both its occupants.  
“So it was Roxy who put you up to this –“ not even trying to hold back a smirk in the meantime, “- its Ensign Holdcroft isn’t it?”  
“Yes Sir, I’m hoping to impress her, and I was told it’s the little things that do that, so I’m getting these in early!” The Ensign, despite everything, seemed to now be bristling with an underlying excitement.  
“Ensign, I have heard about you, and I believe you are already well on your way to impressing her.” Jack turns with a wink and a smile as the turbolift doors opened.  
“Thank you, Captain!” The now hyperactive Ensign took both piles of Padds and bounded off down the corridor. Jack lingered with personal nostalgia for a brief second. And with no option other than to chuckle to himself he barely got the word “Bridge.” out to the computer clearly enough to send the lift on its way.

The trip wasn’t much longer than it was to deck eight, but without the entertainment it certainly felt like it. When the doors did finally open it was a refreshing wave over him, the first thing he always noticed was the beeping, then the talking, followed by usually some laughter or bickering. But instead it was eerily quiet, still a little noisy, but far ghostlier than it usually is. “Everything alright, Commander?” Jack asked with a little more abrasion than he meant as he strolled through the sliding doors. He could already see the familiar sight of the long silver hair of the Commander, a stark contrast to the red and black of her uniform.  
“Aye, Captain. The last data has been taken in, Astrometrics says they can analyse it on the move, so we are good to go.” Jack had known Alisha his whole life. She travelled with his parents when they were both young after hers had been killed. They got into the academy together, she completed it though - at least when she was supposed to - always being far more intellectual than him and a lot of the waking universe. She was even with him at the court martial, it was nice of her to come to his defence and he always appreciated that a lot more than she knew. Currently, she was simply happy. And that was enough.  
“Speaking of good to go, where is Lt. Commander Carson?” Jack said this as he took a longer stroll around the bridge, following up with “In fact, I’d like to widen the parameters of that question to, where is everybody?” He hadn’t clocked it at first, but there were several people missing. He was now stood at Operations and could see Liana, the chief science officer sat at the back of the bridge. The Lieutenant Commander had a couple of lower ranks at her station too which was to be expected, but Clarissa wasn’t at tactical and as a green skinned Orion – she was hard to miss. Comms was also occupied, but not by Ensign Thuania the Andorian Jack was used to seeing at its controls. He saw Alisha sat at helm, which was Sam’s station, but according to Starfleet regulation, you couldn’t leave it unmanned so it wasn’t rare to see it under another officers’ fingertips.  
“Relax, I just gave you an earlier call than the rest.” she laughed as she pressed an array of buttons laid out across the curved surface of the sleek grey console, the lights flickering reflections of different colours across her uniform as she did so.  
“Y’know, Sam won’t like you messing with his precious buttons” He leant one hand across the back of Alisha's chair. “He has spent hours meticulously ensuring sure that they are in the right places, could be booby trapped” Alisha with a graceful turn of her head raised an eyebrow higher than he thought was humanly possible. “Then again, maybe not.” They both chuckled as right on cue the turbolift doors hissed open and Lieutenant Commander Carson exited with a certain light-footedness that only he seemed capable of.  
“Early today Captain. I’m impressed,” his voice was chirpy and kind. “And I can already see you pressing buttons Commander, get!”  
“How are you doing Sam?” Jack asked, with the utmost sincerity. He cared about his crew and from Sam’s body language and voice he could tell the answer he was going to get. But that didn’t make it any less worth hearing it from the Lieutenant himself.  
“Honestly, pretty good. I’m excited to get out of this place for a change, do we have a heading?” Jack already knew Sam was plotting the movements he would need to make to get the ship pointed in the right direction.  
“We have been ordered to Starbase 728,” Alisha chimed in. “No more information than that” Alisha chimed in.  
“Nothing more?” Sam’s voice had replaced its chirpiness for a confused undertone.  
Jack put on the best poker face he could muster. “Apparently not. It’ll be alright, don’t fret. But do plot a course, Lieutenant. Warp 6.”  
“On it.” Sam confirmed as he approached the seat, and like a well-oiled machine, the rhythm of musical chairs occurred. Jack moved backwards from helm, Alisha got up and swung around, headed back to her command console whilst Sam sat down on the still swivelling chair.  
Jack stood in the centre of the bridge for a moment. The bleeps and tones coming from the surrounding consoles were a constant, but something you didn’t hear until you listened for them.  
His moment of pondering broken by Sam’s rhythmic voice, “Coordinates laid in Captain, escape vectors from the nebula are plotted and we are ready for warp.” Jack took one last look out of the viewscreen; it contained the last physical sight they would see of the Rosetta nebula for hopefully quite a long time. He turned on his heels, thinking it looked more dramatic that way, before making his way to the central command chair. He liked the chair, ever since the Chief fitted a new one it was a pleasure to sit in. Which he does, crossing over the right leg over his left, the decision of which leg being a much larger concern than it ever should have been. There is an audible sigh of relief from Jack and a noticeable aura of suspense from the crew before he spoke.  
“Alright Sam: Hit it.” And with that command, a flick of his wrist and a single movement of Sam’s index finger the ship flexed her muscles and with nothing other than a greater hum from the engines, she accelerated away.

The normality of routine took hold over the next few minutes. Lieutenants, Ensigns, even some permitted junior ranks would enter and leave, dropping off Padds of data to officers at their posts. The main crew were all now at their stations and proving that the Bridge could be a bustling place when it was in full swing. Glancing around on occasion Jack was reminded how much he loved this place. True, a ship’s Captain spent a lot of time reading reports, updates and numerous other large blocks of text from departments all over the vessel. As he was doing now; reading a beautifully written piece from the Chief Engineer about the schedule for fixing the on-the-fritz slipstream drive. According to the literature it had been seemingly plaguing the Lt. Commanders dreams. A quick read through and approval was all that was needed from Jack. But as he began to get invested in the ten-ish pages of tables and times a much more ominous bleeping began to emanate from the far console over Jack’s right shoulder.  
In reality it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since the journey had begun, and just after the crew were starting to settle as well. Admittedly, even for such a prestige crew the bleeping had caught them off guard. And it was followed by news you never wanted to hear.  
“Captain,” Ensign Sylvian Thuania called from the back of the bridge, “I’m picking  
up a distress call.”  
“Ensign, I’m going to need more than that,” Jack said, swivelling the command chair to face his console. “What’ve you got?”  
“Federation transponder beacon, very strong, getting a position through now. Also receiving authentication codes.” Thuania turned to look at Jack. “Codes confirmed: it’s definitely a Starfleet ship.”  
“Alright – Liana run those through the database. Find a match.”  
“Yes, Captain.” Liana acknowledged the order and in doing so initiating a momentary silence on the bridge as thoughts and theories flew.  
This pause interrupted by Thuania’s now confused tone: “Captain, I have the coordinates, but its originating from the Rosetta Nebula, less than 400,000 kilometres from our last position there...”  
“How is that possible? And how come we didn’t detect this signal sooner?” Jack's clear voice cut through an aura of analysis and confusion from every officer. There was a noticeable increase in buttons being tapped on the frantically flashing consoles beneath the dancing fingers of some of Starfleet’s finest. “Lieutenant Carson, bring us about, take us to those coordinates at warp nine. Alisha, still any small possibility of this being a Crybaby?”  
“Negative, Captain,” Alisha said, moving towards the operation station. “As far as we can tell, it’s entirely legitimate. I’m not saying it isn’t a trap, but those codes are official.”  
“I have a match on the registration,” Liana piped up. “NCC-92710, the USS Lutfield. Odyssey Class. Current assignment... Classified.”  
“Approaching target, Sir,” Sam said, in a distinctively less-chirpy voice. “One minute.”  
Jack swivelled to face the viewscreen.  
“Captain,” Thuania said. “The distress signal has stopped transmitting.”  
Jack nodded, then swapped his legs and pressed a button on the chair.  
“This is the Captain speaking: All hands standby. We have no idea what we are walking into here but if that ship is in trouble; we are going to help.” Jack took his hand off the button. “Go to yellow alert. Standby all transporters and prep shuttles for emergency evacuation. Bridge to Sickbay.”  
The familiar voice of Lieutenant Commander Whitehouse, the ships chief medical officer, crackled around the room, “Sickbay here.”  
“Ben, prepare medical teams and standby for possible heavy casualties.”  
“Are we expecting trouble?”  
“Unsure, just be ready.”  
“Yes, Sir. Sickbay out.”  
Turning his attention back to the viewscreen, Jack’s internal counting grew higher until it reached the fifty-five second mark. “Drop us out of warp.” The gargantuan Polaris Class starship slid out of warp into the path of masses of devastation. Jack raised himself out of the chair. The screen showed the mangled wreck of a what he assumed was the USS Lutfield; the Odyssey Class, one of Starfleet’s most powerful ships, in a painful disarray. Around the corpse pink bolts of light crashed into it from two circling objects. The tranquillity was snapped back to reality in a heartbeat. “Shields up, red alert, all hands to battle stations. Sam take us in, Ensign Thuania hail the surrounding vessels, and somebody get me a full sensor scan.” There were a few stretched seconds as the orders were followed, giving Jack just enough chance to take a breath.  
Thuania threw his reply to Jack, “Sir, the Alien vessels are not responding. Neither is the Lutfield.”  
“Open a channel then, Ensign.” Jack looked around at Thuania who after a second or so, nods. “This is Captain Jack Curtis of the Federation starship USS Arlandria to unidentified vessels. Cease fire, stand down and lower your shields. You will not leave this sector. Any continued hostile action or disobedience of those orders and you will be fired upon. Arlandria out.” There was a pause. A momentary flash of hope that it worked… for once.  
“No change, Sir” Alisha’s disappointed tone echoing across the consoles.  
“Dammit. Sam, distance?”  
“Closing to 1000 kilometres.”  
“Alright, get us into weapons range. Lieutenant Förster, I want four photon torpedoes, two per ship, detonation set to 200 meters of their primary hull.”  
The acknowledgement came from the Orion alongside a surprisingly scary smile, “With pleasure, Captain.”  
“We are in range” Sam followed.  
“Hold position. Lieutenant – Fire.” The four bright red photons emerged from the hull of the vessel with a certain majesty about them. They were dangerously pretty as they flew through the speckled black. The explosions that followed ended up being insignificant specs on the viewscreen.  
Without raising her head from her display Alisha announced, “One of the ships has broken off and is headed towards us. The other is holding station.”  
“Clarissa, if they open fire, use everything we have to disable that ship. I don’t want it destroyed.”  
Her reply came with grit, “They have a weapons lock. Brace for impact.”  
“Sam, evasive patterns at your own discretion.” Despite the warning, as the unexpectedly powerful shots rippled across the ship’s shields, Jack lost grip on the chair almost ending up on the floor along with a few other crew. “Clarissa, return fire!” The Arlandria sent off beam after beam of bright orange phaser fire, the shots being absorbed by the attacking vessel, whilst it countered with pink bolts of its own.

People who have seen battles from the outside, from planet surfaces, out of station windows or even escape pods, typically end up commenting on its emotional power. With no sound to hear - simply the beauty of bright colours - it tended to detract and distract from the severity and death that occurred. It evoked a selfish response, before looking back and knowing that there was no way that light show should have be enjoyed, knowing the devastation that each of those specks caused. Whether that be human nature, or alien nature was unimportant. It’s strange, but those thoughts fluttered through Jack’s mind during the midst of conflict. It may have made him seem like an incompetent leader, or at least worse than the officers who would focus all their energy into the battle. But somehow this keeps Jack sane. He wouldn’t lose himself in the red mist of a fight, he kept these human thoughts flowing through his brain, they grounded him. He used to doubt them, to feel like he should think of nothing else. But keeping that five percent active, that five percent that wasn’t tunnel vision, the five percent that allowed him to see a larger picture, made him the Captain he wanted to be. And that’s the thought that shunned any self-doubts he may have had whilst sipping a bottle of Romulan Ale on a calm evening…  
Almost as quickly as the two vessels dance in the night sky started, it stopped. A situation that causes nothing but a deep-rooted feeling of dread to bubble in the crew. Fighting stops after one of two things. Either: You win, or you lose. In this situation. It didn’t feel like a victory, but they were no longer under attack, which Jack realised meant it wasn’t truly over.  
However, he was brought back to reality when Alisha painfully called from her console, “Captain...” her hand was cradling her head, but not enough to conceal the river of blood running across her face.  
“Captain to sickbay, medical team to the bridge.” Jack scrambled to the nearest medical kit, the one tucked under his chair, “What happened Commander?”  
“They,” Her soft, broken tone was heart wrenching, “are moving off.” She winced, pulling her hand away to reveal a large gash. Her fingers trickled red onto the console as words struggled to escape. A sharp inhale from the Commander was enough for Jack to see her drag out the words she was pining for “Heading: Three. One. Zero. Point. Nine. Two...”  
Vyr – one of the newest crew aboard - caught the Commander as she collapsed, and Jack practically yelled over his shoulder, “Sam! You heard her. Pursuit course, keep us on them.” Dragging the medical case out, he felt Vyr take it from his hands, looking up to catch a glimpse of pointed ears.  
“I will assist the Commander, Captain. She is in safe hands.” Vyr had only been aboard two months, Jack didn’t know much about him. But his typical Vulcan voice crafted a feeling of tranquillity.  
Jack simply nodded to the ensign, who returned the etiquette. He spun, adjusted his uniform and made his way to the front of the bridge.  
“Sam?” He launched the question as he took his stride.  
“Hang on, they are fleeing. I think. Fast bastards.”  
“Why are they running?” Jack probed.  
Sam glanced up, “Not my area, and I’m not saying that just because I don’t know”  
Jack gave a serious glare to the Lieutenant. Sam tilted his head back down with an element of guilt. These people were a family, and they needed to be. There also needed to be a time and a place for casual humour. That not being it.  
“I think can answer that though.” Liana called over from the far console. “Come take a look at this, it’s like something emanating from the nebula. Whatever it is, those vessels are running from it, their vector is directly one hundred and eighty degrees the other way.” Jack took a quick look over the data Liana was intrigued by,  
“That frequency, is that some form of warp signature? Maybe it’s a ship.” With a graceful glide of a hand, Liana brought up a new set of data,  
“Computer. Run comparison.” She stated, getting a quick reply from the disembodied voice.  
“Unidentified frequency does not match any known database warp signatures.”  
“How long till it arrives?” Jack flicked his eyes over the console.  
“About 2 minutes, but it’s impossible to tell with the way it is fluctuating.”  
Jack then took his leave, back towards his chair, “Sam. New plan. Get us to the Lutfield and begin bringing those people aboard.”  
The turbolift doors swung open and a couple of officers dressed in the light blue medical accented uniforms raced onto the bridge. There were a few people injured up here, but they scampered straight for Alisha, relieving Vyr, who was still tending to her wounds, with a simple shoulder tap.  
The coordination of a crew was an underrated necessity. There were close to one thousand three hundred Starfleet officers spread out over eight-hundred metres of metallic plating, and only the few on the bridge knew what was happening. Jack had to trust that every single one of those other officers was prepared to do their duty.  
“Captain, we have transporter lock on the Lutfield.” Liana threw her voice, presumably to avoid taking her eyes off the hypnotising display.  
“Alright. Drop shields: bring as many as you can at once. Use the cargo transporters too. Should help get them abo-“  
“-Already done, Sir.”  
Jack couldn’t help being impressed. She was chief science officer for a reason. “Sam, I want a course plotted away from here, as soon as those people are aboard, we are gone. Understood?”  
“Gotcha, I have replotted for Starbase 728.” Sam was sat on the edge of his seat, his right foot attempting to detach itself from his ankle via vibration alone. “It’s a huge place, bound to have more medical capability then us.”  
Thuania glanced over, “Captain, I can contact the Starbase, let them know we are incoming with wounded?” Jack could see the look on the young Andorians face. It was the same one Jack had when he was suggesting anything to his old Captain, Captain Lattimer. A look of anticipation. Was it a good suggestion from the Ensign? Strategically, yes. But everything about the way it happened caused a painful reminder of his mentor and his friend. In the second or so these thoughts crossed his mind he could see an age had passed on the face of Thuania.  
Jack raised his hand to lightly point at him, “Get on it, Ensign, good thinking. For whatever reason it felt right to do so, plus maybe they wouldn’t notice his lapse. Jack took his seat. This time bringing up two holographic panels. He watched numbers fly through the air, dials changed as the transporters plucked around one thousand people from the dying ship outside. It was a waiting game now. He could do no more. But time was moving far quicker than normal. These were the adrenaline fuelled scenarios in which every second mattered. Every second feeling half as long as it needed to be to save a life. As he watched the timer that Liana has so generously sent to his panel, he witnessed the seconds erase themselves, knowing that whatever was held at the end was potentially worse than their current predicament. He made the decision to stay. He could have taken the ship and run, left the people behind but guaranteed the safety of those on this ship. That was not the Captain Starfleet had made him. There were people alive and he was going to do everything he could to save them. 

The timer hit thirty seconds.  
“Alright. Sitrep?” Jack broke his own silence.  
“We have six hundred and seventy-nine people from the Lutfield, Sir. Still over eight hundred left.” There was enough of a wobble in Liana’s voice for Jack to know full well that she was struggling, “I haven’t been able to transport off their bridge, some form of dampening field.” The decision of who was transported first was weighing on her. After all, the choice could be the matter of who lived or who died.  
“Still got 15 seconds, keep at it! Sam?”  
The Lieutenant Commander reacted to the call instantly. “Whatever is coming is deflecting all scans. We can’t get any sort of reading. But escape vectors are plotted and standing by if we need to cut and run. Starbase 728 is awaiting us.”  
Jack could read the room. The anticipation was thick enough to be seen in the air. No one knew what to expect. In five seconds: It was uncharted territory.  
“Liana: Cease transport,” the breath he took was ice cold and devoid of hope. ”Clarissa: Raise shields.”

The crew looked out into the black. The air still. Five or six seconds of nothing but silence passed by, the bleeps of displays the only sound to be heard before the bridge was plunged into darkness, and a motion similar to that on ancient sailing ships took over. A second crawled past before a flickering of pale light emerged to bathe the room.  
“Report? Was that the nebula?” Jack didn't aim the question at anyone in particular as he slowly looked around the room.  
Liana called with a slight strain on her voice. “Uncertain, everything is down, but backup lighting has kicked in.”  
“All communications are down too.” Thuania shrugged as he caught Jack’s eye.  
“Tactical systems are offline,” Clarissa threw herself back from her display in frustration, “shields and weapons aren’t responding either. The whole damn ship is down.”  
“Confirmed.” Liana was already out of her seat and prying the panel off the bottom of her console. “Main power is offline.”  
Sam clattered up out of his chair, “The helm is dead. We aren’t going anywhere.” Jack was close enough to catch a following murmur from Sam, “Come on. Give me something. Anything.” He was known for talking to the ship, and Jack was a little guilty of it too. He left Sam to rightfully complain, heading over to where Liana was attempting to disassemble the Arlandria from the inside out. He nodded to her, before combining strength to detach the panel. The wiring behind was lifeless. The veins of the ship would usually throb with might, yet they lay limp and lifeless.  
“Goddamn it!” Liana let out her frustration as she stood up and threw the panel to the floor, “What the hell is going on here? Why aren’t we being attacked? Why was that an EMP? We were sat, right here, at this nebula, for so long.” The gritting of teeth was apparent.And Jack daren’t interrupt, ”Where did the Lutfield even come from? Why is something from the nebula now disabling us?” She looked to Jack who lay a hand on her shoulder. “Sorry. It’s just, I hate not knowing.”  
“It’s alright.” Everyone on the bridge had congregated towards them at this point. Jack took his hand away and grabbed the rooms attention “Okay! So, the ships systems are down, but not everything. Backup generators are active for life support and emergency lighting. Meaning it’s just main power. We have no proof if this is related to the nebula signal but based on timing and the fact we haven’t been blown out of the sky, let’s assume it’s related. I would say that the fact those two ships ran; they knew this may have been the outcome. For now, we can work under the assumption that this is what happened to the Lutfield. We can’t do much from here, so I’m going down to Harry in engineering, Liana, you are coming with and we’ll find Clara on the way. Sam, stay on helm, if we get power we need to be prepared to run. Priorities: Get internal communications back, we cannot function without that. Then we need to try to find out what happened. If this power failure isn’t related to the nebula, I want to know. I need to know what we are dealing with in all regards. Everybody else, stay at your stations.”  
Jack got an acknowledgment of some kind from the majority before he heard a yell from the other side of the bridge. “Wait! Here.” Clarissa came running forward. A belt in each hand, on each was a phaser, “We don’t know what’s happening. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared for the worst.” She practically forced both Jack and Liana to grab one.  
Jack light with the tone of his voice, “There is no refusing this, it seems.” Attempting to implant a seed of humour to lighten the mood and simultaneously hide how afraid he really was at this moment. They both strapped the belt to their uniform as Jack went to step into the turbolift – the moment of confusion as the doors did not hiss open replaced immediately by a monumental sigh of embarrassment.  
“How’s that lift working out for you?” Sam tried so very hard to contain laughter.  
Jack listened to the sounds as he turned slowly on his heel, “I’ll admit. It’s not gone as smoothly as I envisioned.” He couldn’t help but laugh himself as he hadn’t seen so many people look so disappointed whilst stifling laughter. “I think I’ll try something that doesn’t require the one commodity we are currently lacking... Jeffries tubes. Here we come.” There were a couple of pats on the back as everyone dispersed back to their own conversations and consoles.  
“Good luck, Jack.” Sam said. He smiled at Jack as he headed back to his seat. 

Liana had now pried off the second panel of the day. At least, Jack hoped it was only the second. Albeit this one was designed to be easily accessible without power.  
“I’ll go first Lieutenant. I hate these things even more than you.” Jack lowered himself through the bridge floor and onto the ladder, “We’ll head down to deck two. Then we can use one of that decks access hatches to keep going down, I think I can get us to Engineering scot-free, but you know how cramped these things can be.”  
As Jack headed down, he tried to map together the route. There were miles of tubes, horizontal, vertical, all running throughout the ship’s guts. Each was as cramped and as tight as this one, although he realised his imagination made it much worse than reality. The more he thought about where he was going, the more he realised how much further he was going.  
Eventually he found solid ground and turned around to see the sight of deck two written on the opposite wall. As he read, couple of crew members came running around the corner, panic strewn across their faces.  
“Captain!?” The panic was quick to dissipate as a wave of relief washed over them, “Can you tell us what is going on?”  
“We don’t know much more than you. Main power is out, we are heading to engineering to try figure out what’s going on. Just sit tight.”  
Jack tried his best to reassure the young officers as Liana interjected: “No-one is injured up here are they Ensign?” She looked at the left most of the two, as Jack turned away to visualise the route in his head. They could get a fair way along deck two before dropping down a few more levels, a moment of frustration after he reminded himself, he needed to get to Operations first. That would add a little more inconvenience: but a small drop in the ocean when your ship was dead in the water.  
He got a tap from Liana, “You okay, Captain?” the query felt almost painful.  
“I’m alright, my apologies. Just an overabundance of thought. That being said I can get us to Operations within maybe ten minutes, how long to Engineering is a different story.” Jack trundled his way down the corridor most of it spent backwards conversing with the trailing Liana and caressing his beard.

As the pair worked their way through the insides of the vessel, Jack couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of relief. Although physically it didn’t compare to a weekend visit to Risa, they were alive. And whilst this ranked quite highly on the days ‘good news’ quota Jack was expecting the attacking ships to return. They were adrift. They were alone. And the word vulnerable was an understatement. The nebula had sent some form of frequency, a signal, maybe. Then power goes out, coincidentally at the same time. That was it. No follow up, no attack. What was currently stopping those ships from coming back? What lurked outside the hull? Was the signal just a fancy electromagnetic pulse? If so, why couldn’t they identify it as such? And why hadn’t they regained power yet? As the minutes passed and Jack spiraled more and more along the lines of curiosity, he could finally make out the voices he was hoping for. A few prolonged seconds later, he stepped off the final ladder.  
“Ah, there we go. See, what did I say; ten minutes.” Jack tossed the sentence over his shoulder as their arrival attracted the attention of the two people stood in the centre of the room. “Lieutenant. Report.” The two words were enough that Clara came to them. She was Operations officer, and operations of a ship of this scale was no easy task. As human as she looked, the spots that ran down the sides of Trill were unique to each and every one of their species, as was the symbiont they bonded with. It was a little hard to comprehend that she had the lives of generations of people all cuddled up in one mind.  
“Captain? Good to know you made it. As you can see, ships systems are offline, backup generators are on, so we have minimal emergency lighting.” She began to lead them around the corner of the room, “Not sure what the cause was, but we lost all power and I’m assuming that happened ship-wide. In more promising news, we have managed to feed power from a few handheld phasers into a console. It’s not much, but it’s a start.”  
As she went to continue a thick Scottish accent emanating from a pair of legs emerging from the ship’s interior interjected, “Aye, it might be a start, but it’s also not tellin’ us anything we don’t already know.” The Ensign moved his head into sight, “So, I’m tryin’ to establish a link with the main computer, it may be offline, but I believe I can patch this console into it directly.” His head disappeared back, Jack looked at Clara who managed to convey the message of ‘Give him a second’ with a simple little head tilt. “Now I know what you’s probably are thinking, and aye, if I don’t remove this connection when we manage to restart the computer, it’ll blow up. I understand that, I truly do! But we ain’t gonna get anywhere if we don’t at least attempt this.”  
“It sounds like a plan, Ensign!” Jack then turned to whisper to Clara and Liana. “Another recent transfer, right? Straight from the academy?”  
“Ensign Kayden, Sir. Look, I realise he doesn’t exactly have the demeanour of a bridge officer, but he is a hell of an enginee-” Jack interrupted. He could tell she was on the defensive and managed to wrestle the conversation from her hands.  
“-Relax Lieutenant, I’m not here to judge, if he is respectful and works hard, he is welcome on my boat. Besides, I like it when my crew have a personality.” Jack then twisted and turned to try get a look under the console.  
“Almost got it Capt’n, hold on a wee sec.” The subsequent grin on the face of the Ensign as he swung himself out from the console was extraordinary, “Aye! Let’s give ‘er a go, Sir!” Before Jack had time to move the Ensign was on his feet, “Computer?” The console lit up in its usual bright beautiful colours, its ambient sounds cast out into the lowly lit room; somehow making it feel more isolated than before.  
“Computer. Bring up full systems display.” Jack leant over the display as a diagram of the ship appeared onto the screen. “Computer, can you initiate a sensor sweep? All decks.” Jack smiled at Kayden, “Nice job, Ensign.”  
The slightly robotic female voice relaying an answer that Jack had expected but hoped to avoid, “Unable to comply. Sensor systems are offline.”  
“Computer. Identify what caused main power failure?” As Jack inquired to the disembodied voice.  
“Main power is being drained from the warp core.”  
“Wait,” Liana beat Jack to the question, “so, it wasn’t simply a single event, we have power, but it’s being drained immediately?”  
Jack could see her face and knew the look of analysis all too well. “It could explain why we haven’t been able to bring anything back. Computer, where is it being drained from, and where is it being taken?” A step back from the console, he was now formulating theories of his own, not as many involved vampires as he first thought they might, but the principle was the same. Power was the blood of the ship. So, what lived on power?  
“Location of largest drain originates from Engineering. Power is being drained to an unknown location.”  
“We have to get to engineering.” Jack was headed across the room by this point, looking around to see Liana already in front of him. “Clara, focus on getting the comms working, we need communication!”  
“We’ll see if we can figure out a way. Don’t worry, we’ll get it done, Captain.” Jack leapt onto the ladder. This time the claustrophobic Jeffries tubes were the last thing on the list of things to worry about.

The journey was more arduous than before, and this time Jack was thinking a lot about the crew, they kept running into a lot of people who were as confused as you’d expect from people trapped on single decks of a seven hundred and fifty-metre-long ship. But as they ran into more populated areas and the tenth or so group, they were different, a lot of the crew didn’t look as confused, they were worried but looked like this was expected. He didn’t have time to stop and question them, but it played on his mind as they took corridor after corridor, then tube by tube to reach the next deck. Rinse and repeat.

It wasn’t an easy trek, but eventually Jack dropped out onto the main engineering deck and immediately, things were very wrong. The atmosphere was filled with a bloody aura, it felt stuffy and warm. Liana, who had exited a minute or so before, was leant over a body on the floor. Despite the fact Jack had been running for a while, he moved faster than he had done to reach where she was crouched. Her slow turn gave him all the information he needed. As she raised up, Jack could see the blood on her uniform. As he looked at the body she was near he could see it had been burnt and flecks of uniform were left charred on the ground. Half his upper torso was exposed, mottled and covered in burnt skin, on top of that his right arm was leaking blood from a gash that Jack didn’t want to know how far it went. The culprit piece of bulkhead that lay on the floor adjacent, was coated in a thick layer of blood. As Jack continued down the corridor, he could hear some shouting and groaning from ahead, he and Liana rounded a corner into mess. Jack recognised half the people here, some from their faces, and some that he was forced to identify from rank and other means.  
“Captain!” The person they were here to see struggled toward them, fighting his way over a dozen people on the floor and a few more trying to treat them. Jack was glad to see Harry on his feet; he could now ease the part of his mind telling him it was a wasted trip. “Captain. No time, Engineering is bust,” Harry had reached Jack who was now last clean uniform in the vicinity and was practically dragging him back through the bodies to the Engineering entrance, “we had to evacuate. Some damage caused an EPS overload that blew out half the consoles, we have major burns down here, then to make matters worse we lose all power a few minutes later. I’m not sure what’s happening in there, but I’m almost back in.” The double door was locked down. It had some small burn marks down the centre which Jack attributed to the discarded laser torch at its base “The door is sealed tight. I have been trying to cut it with a damned laser torch, but these things were made to be secure.”  
Jack simply nodded to Liana as he drew his phaser and pointed at the door, “Setting 4.5 should do.” It was Liana’s turn to nod before they caused a pair of orange beams to slam into the sealed door. It stayed that way for thirty seconds by Jack’s count and seeing the look on Liana’s face; likely thirty-five by hers. Jack could tell she was getting a little shaken by the whole chain of events, and a moment of wondering how desensitised he should be in a situation like this, passed as the door hissed open and the trio headed inside. The majestic cylindrical core dominated the room, although its usual blue glow was faint and weak.  
“Harry, our power is being sucked away. That’s why we cannot regain it, wasn’t just a single pulse.” Jack was frantically searching for anything attached to the core that may be acting as a drain for the precious commodity, “The computer said the main source was coming from here. But it implied other ones too.” He was already up to the second level of the room, about halfway up the warp core and still nothing.  
“We didn’t see anything in here when it happened, but it sure felt like just a pulse to us. I’m not quite sure I understand how it could be anything but. And how did you access the computer; everything is offline down here?” In the meantime Harry was analysing the damaged walls and consoles, at least that’s what it looked like. On top of that; Jack couldn’t even see Liana anymore, even when she joined in the rather distant conversation.  
“Imagine vampires, Chief!” her voice sounded closer than Harry’s, but more frantic. Not that it was anything Jack should have been focusing on at that point.  
“Oh vampires! Yeah, that actually makes it clearer!” Harry was nearing the top of the vocal range before he was officially shouting. “Wait. What if the device isn’t directly on the core?”  
Jack wanted to listen, so started to clamber his way back down towards the voice. “Don’t stop there Chief, what are you thinking?”  
“Well. Whatever it is could be on the ejection hatch, it is connected to the bottom of the core, I guess it technically could be used as a siphon point if the need required it.” Harry slipped through the railing surrounding the core on the ground level, “I have an idea! If we reverse the polarity of that hull section, it should fry whatever piece of equipment is doing it.” Harry was already taking off panels and rewiring parts of the ship Jack hadn’t even seen before.  
“You’ll need a power source, right. Here!” Jack chucked the phaser down to Harry who caught it and with a single motion flicked its powerpack into his hand before throwing the carcass back up, “In hindsight: I probably should have just passed you the pack!”  
“At least you’ll remember for next time!” A moment later the blue light reenergises itself, the swirls and patterns of the warp core coming back to life “Alright. It’s done!” The lights slowly flickered away from the emergency red as consoles in every direction lit up with an array of sound and colour. The sense of normality was overwhelming. Jack leant a hand down to Harry who took it and mustered himself back past the railing.  
The familiar sound of his combadge radiated Alisha’s voice, a voice he didn’t particularly expect. “Bridge to Captain?” It was a relief to know she was alright after Jack’s last memory was the Commander unconscious on the bridge floor.  
“Captain to sickbay. Medical Emergency in Engineering, we have several critically wounded.” Jack tapped his combadge again. “Captain to the bridge, go ahead.”  
“We have seventy-eight percent power back. The computer is registering three other drains still on the ship; however, they are only affecting local areas. And we need you up here, sensors show these drains to be organic, they are lifeforms.”  
“Organic, Commander? Hang on, I’m on my way. Captain out - Liana, with me, we are needed on the bridge. Harry, medical is on the way, can you manage down here for the time being?” Lifeforms had engaged the ship, hostile? Potentially. Intent to kill? Doubtful. Intelligent? Enough to find the most energy rich part of the ship and latch on. All this swum through Jack’s mind whilst running, avoiding people, and doing his best to ensure the wounded were available to be treated as well as answering calls from across the main departments of the ship. Thuania would handle most the communication traffic and be relaying information. These were chaotic times, but least the turbolifts were working this time.

As Jack entered through the sliding doors with Liana in tow, the turbolifts air was stagnant and stale. In a ship this size, it was rare that one was ever unoccupied for longer than a minute. Alas, the doors hissed closed and the Lieutenant sent it on its way to the bridge. To think they had crawled their way through the beast and Jack was more overrun with thought in the thirty second journey back. He was done with throwing around theories in his head, facts were now needed. Alien life had to be handled in very specific ways, even if it had just ‘attacked’ the ship. Maybe it was simply a sensor malfunction anyway – they were down on power and there may have been damage to the deflector grid that he wasn’t aware of yet. There were a lot of possibilities he had just told himself he wasn’t going to go through, before ignoring his own advice and doing it anyway. But he did manage to take his mind off that and onto why the turbolift felt to Jack like it was faster to crawl. The doors decided to play nice and opened as these thoughts flew, the hiss revealed a more familiar setting.  
The bridge was back in full swing. He followed Liana out, who headed to her chair, relieving the Ferengi who had taken her place.  
As Jack moved to his seat, he saw silver hair draped down the back of the chair “Don’t get to comfy, Commander. That one is still mine.” Alisha swung it around, her movement making Jack a little envious he couldn’t do it that gracefully.  
She stood up with the same demeanour before gesturing to the chair, “All yours. For now!” She moved over to the First Officers seat, only slightly off to the right of the Captains, not quite as comfy but close enough that the two senior officers could converse with ease.  
“Lifeforms then, Commander?” Jack leant into arm of the chair as he flicked displays up.  
“Small, space dwelling creatures, the one you startled off the hull was a bit bigger at thirty foot, the other three are about fifteen. Local power drains on deck six, twenty-two and thirty-four. But it’s enough that we can’t get out of here, the one on deck six just so happens to have attached itself to the impulse manifold. On top of that: Sam says we can’t establish a stable warp field with them on our hull.” Jack listened as he scrolled through the database trying to find a match for the creatures, but to no avail. His efforts proved further fruitless after Alisha chimed in: “Don’t bother looking, the computer couldn’t identify their composition either.”  
With that nail in the coffin Jack shut the display down, immersing himself back into the room, “Alright, Commander. Let’s go about this properly. See if we have any luck this time.” Jack swivelled to face where Thuania was sat. “Ensign Thuania, you know the drill. Open hailing frequencies.”  
“Yes, Sir. Opening comms.” The blue skinned Ensign tapped the display, before looking back towards Jack and nodding.  
“Attention Alien creatures. We are attempting to establish communication with you directly. If you can understand this message, please release our vessel. We do not want to harm you, but you need to detach immediately.” Jack tried to speak as clearly and concise as possible. “Think it’ll work?”  
Alisha shrugged at him, “Rarely does with space faring creatures, but always worth a shot. Although, I do have something interesting here: Before you arrived, I asked Chief Bardell to see if he could find a way to change our power signature – if these creatures are feeding on it, maybe we can change the taste to something less appetising. Either way, he just implemented a slight change to one part of the ship, not sure how, but I think it is having an effect. Look,” She dropped a pad into his hand with three diagrams, Jack made the connection of three creatures, three diagrams, but one was staring to differ from the rest. “as you can see, that’s the strain on the hull, and its dropping!”  
Jack took as detailed a look as he could but understood far more from the Commanders words. “It’s letting go?” Jack handed her the Padd back as he stood, taking a stance behind Sam’s seat, “Alright, Lieutenant. When we get released I want us to move away, then we’ll circle back round to the Lutfield, maybe we can keep moving: obviously we can’t transport with our shields up and I’m not risking giving those creatures even a remote opportunity to latch back ont…“ Jack was cut off by the room falling crimson, a yell from behind him and klaxons ringing as the ship put itself into Red Alert.  
Alisha was watching her padd in awed horror, “Captain! Somethings not right. Hull stress is shooting up at all three locations, way past normal, hull breaches in fifteen seconds, and without power in those areas, emergency forcefields will not activate!”  
“Liana!” Jack was now back to being the one main voice, and that voice was memorable when necessary, “Try reverse hull polarity. Clarissa, standby phasers, lowest setting, get a lock on those creatures. Are there people in those sections?” Unfortunately, right now he didn’t have the time to sit and think. He didn’t have the luxury of time.  
“Polarity isn’t working fast enough.” The words trailed out of Liana’s mouth  
“Captain, I have established a lock, but its awkward to shoot at ourselv-“  
“Fire.”  
Jack’s interruption catching the Lieutenant off guard, but she responded: pressing a single button the sounds of the ship’s phasers went off. At this point. If it had worked, it worked and if not, well he didn’t have time to try anything else.  
Alisha looked up from her Padd, relaying the information she saw, “Hull stress is dropping. The creatures have been detached.”  
“Lieutenant Carson, get us moving.” Through gritted teeth Jack threw his weight down, it wasn’t gentle. He collapsed with a thud into the chair, head in his hands.  
“We are away, creatures not pursuing.” Sam’s voice cut through him before Alisha’s poured salt into that wound.  
“There were no people in any section that would have been affected by depressurisation. Captain” He could feel her sombre eyes staring at him.

Jack had joined Starfleet to save lives. His decision had been entirely based on saving lives, even one. But now he may have just caused the death of three creatures. Sure, he could argue with himself. They were damaging the ship. They were the aggressors, there could have been lives at stake, what if they had blown the impulse manifold, half the saucer would be dust. Three viable and reasonable reasons. But then again, three small depressurisations wouldn’t have been too bad. The creatures would have been detached when they bore through and most importantly, they would have survived. First contact could have… No. He wasn’t going to sit through this self-torture. There were still things to do. He could wallow in regret later.  
He dropped his hands away from cradling his face, wiped away the single forming tear and stood in what he hoped was defiance, “Commander. Full report.”  
“The three smaller creatures are adrift, the fourth looks stunned from Chief Bardell’s actions. We have full power, hull stress is nominal, Sir.” Alisha was sat, her demeanour equalled that of his own.  
“Stand down Red Alert. Somebody get me a visual on those creatures.” Jack watched as an image appeared on the main viewscreen, until now he hadn’t truly seen them. Displays and data only told him so much. They were a mottled cream colour, reasonably flat and no discernible facial features, no visible eyes, only some form of sucker on the underside of their body. The smaller creatures had minor phaser burns surrounded by older, healed wounds of what almost looked like the same variant of weapon, “Lieutenant Vaughn, full breakdown of their biometrics.” Jack looked at Liana, getting a nod in response. “Sam, take us back around to the Lutfield then scan that ship for similar lifeforms. Understood?” Jack didn’t even check to see if Sam acknowledged, he was aware that he understood. Jack headed to Liana’s station, as she drew up the scan. It wasn’t anything special, but it proved the creature wasn’t functioning, curiously it also showed that its newly acquired phaser burns were minor with no deep flesh wounds. However, its surface had scars that represented what could only be connected with some form of constant combat, or subject to some form of abuse. Research into these beasts would be interesting to say the least, but Jack had a bad feeling in his gut. “Lieutenant. Any way we can restart their heart? Some form of electrical pulse, something to resuscitate it?”  
“I’ll work on it, Captain. Perhaps we can modify the deflector.”  
“Get started.” Jack walked away from the console when he felt the ship come to a rest.  
Sam moved his hands away from the controls before tossing Jack an update, “We are back at the Lutfield, Sir. Sensors show that they have multiple creatures attached to their hull. Five hundred people still aboard.”  
“Thank you, Lieutenant Commander. Alright, can we reverse the polarity of the Lutfield’s hull, localised areas?” Jack wasn’t asking anyone in particular, and he wasn’t certain who he would actually get a reply from.  
Not too surprisingly it was the Commander who gave him his answer, “Yes, Captain. I can ready the deflector.”  
“Good Commander. But hold your modifications, we have creatures to save first.” Jack was determined to make amends, regardless of what he may, could, or even should have done. It was done. “Lieutenant, then you have completed your changes, do not hesitate to fire. Time will be of the essence.” As he returned to his seat, he had lost count of time since the initial incident. It was around fifty or sixty seconds as he lowered himself down; this time no attempt was made to force the chair through the bridge carpet.  
Counting once again, as he reached twelve Liana got to work, “Modifications complete, the first creature is targeted. Firing main deflector in three, two, one.”  
Jack watched the viewscreen as the blue-green beam hit the creature. “Any change?” he stayed focused on the screen, hoping that redemption was imminent.  
“Nothing yet but I have targeted the second creature. It may still be working. This is kind of new territory.” The viewscreen changed again, this time to the second creature, the same pulse was fired, and then, the third, then the first, second, third. It took a couple of rotations through before a squeal from his right nearly make Jack require the same treatment.

As he went to address it a call from Liana refocused his attention, “We have movement, Sir! Jack watched as the creature on the viewscreen wiggled a little, then turned that wiggle into more of a squirm, before it seemed to get a grasp on its surroundings and began to disappear, stars could now be seen through the creature as it became more and more translucent. “And they are cloaking?” Her voice was relaying different emotions faster than anyone could keep up. “Captain! They are cloaking!”  
“We can see Lieutenant.” Jack again refused to pry his vision from the main screen, “What in the world… Confirm, all three creatures?”  
“All three! Just – gone!” Liana’s voice was fluctuating less as she responded, “The fourth is still alive and adrift, it may be a while before it’s no longer stunned.”  
Jack felt overwhelmed by the sense of relief, he had caused their demise and to be able to negate the damage, at least to some extent, was heart-warming. “Liana. Good job. Whilst I do have a whole rack of questions referring to a natural cloaking system. My first question has to be,” Jack turned to look at the red shirted officer sat to his right, who was holding her hand over her mouth and attempting to become the chair she was sat in. “Commander Ellery, was that you? I have known you for longer than I can remember. And I have never, ever heard that sound come out with such incredible pitch. I honestly didn’t know you were capable, and now I physically cannot forget that; I think it is embedded in my ear.” Jack was doing his best not to express his true levels of excitement at the whole situation.  
“And I thought this cut was the most painful thing to happen to me today.” She righted herself in the chair and through repressed laughter she stated “That, will not be mentioned again. Ever.”  
“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll be sure to leave it out of my report.” Jack couldn’t hold back a grin as he spoke, “Anyway, Commander. I believe you have modifications to make to free the Lutfield. Get on it.” Alisha went back to tapping buttons and carefully swiping displays.  
“Captain, if I could I have your attention. I believe I may have an answer to our nebula conundrum.” Jack rose and headed to the still visibly ecstatic Liana. “I think it was the mother. I was just going through the last data our sensors brought in before the power failure.” Jack was talked through screen after screen of numbers and scans.  
“Lieutenant. As much as I can’t get enough of analysing data. Your conclusion please?”  
“Essentially, Captain. It was a form of warp; faster than light travel in some natural form. Those few seconds of nothing were after she stopped, she was right there in front of us. Before she then lets off an energy pulse that knocks us out. Her, what I presume are children, then latch onto the hull for ‘food’.” Liana swiped the display revealing a whole new selection of data. “But look here, this is a scan from after they cloaked, they all congregated here.” She pointed to what appeared to be three faint forms of residual power frequency.  
“You think the mother is here? Currently?” Jack had so many questions flying through his head.  
“I do. But this is where it moves from fact to speculation. I honestly can only guess why she isn’t attacking us; I mean, we did fire at her children.” Liana was a little hesitant about speaking the end to her sentence.  
“I agree Lieutenant, she has every reason to disable us again and I wouldn’t blame her. You know what that says to me?” Jack looked somehow more excited now than before, “To me, that’s says she is far more than just sentient. Maybe first contact isn’t utterly off the table yet.”  
As Jack beamed at Liana, Alisha called from her chair, “Captain, modifications complete. This will stun the creatures, that’s all. The polarisation of the hull is inflicted slowly this time rather than instantaneously, so they may only be stunned for a matter of seconds. If they don’t let go themselves that is.” By the end of her dialogue Jack had reached his seat, putting the right leg over the left.  
“Fantastic news, Commander.” Jack gestured forwards, “You have the floor.”  
Alisha began to issue coordinates and orders to Sam who was following them precisely. A few minutes passed by and Jack watched though the viewscreen as the Arlandria moved with ease around the Lutfield, one by one, four beams fired from the deflector of the Arlandria. It took around twenty seconds for each of the four creatures to release their hold and as they did so Jack watched the lights of the Lutfield flicker on, the blue streaks down her nacelles, the bright red bussard collectors, the lights behind every window and the glow of its own deflector. There was still major damage to the ship, parts were open to space and tangled pieces of bulkhead were twisted together like spaghetti, but she was alive.

“Captain,” he hadn’t heard Thuania in a while, so it came as a nice surprise to Jack, “we are receiving a hail.”  
“Put it up Ensign.” The viewscreen this time shows the bridge of the Lutfield, its Captain stood in the centre, it wasn’t exactly clean, there was debris scattered over its floor and half of its crew were just as battered.  
“Unidentified Federation vessel, this is Captain Hazel Elgar. I would like to extend my most sincere gratitude to you Captain, providing you do in fact have most of my crew and I’m not misreading my scanners.” The voice had mixed undertones but was for the majority bathed in gratitude.  
“Captain Curtis, U.S.S. Arlandria. Captain, I have your crew, don’t worry. They are safe over here for the moment, we’ll get them back to you when your vessel is safer. Glad you managed to hold together. What’s your ships status?” Jack could tell from the Arlandria’s sensors but was curious as to her description.  
“If you would be so kind as to begin transporting my crew back immediately, we are more than stable enough, I appreciate the concern.” Jack listened and nodded hesitantly to Liana to begin transport, “However, besides missing over half my crew: Our warp drive is coming back online, our emergency bulkheads are now in place. But we only have minimal weapons and our shields wouldn’t hold back a small pebble. With our crew back and some basic repairs, we’ll be safe to get to the nearest Starbase.”  
Jack consciously smiled at the image of the Captain. “Alright. We have begun transport of your crew back to safe areas of your ship. We’ll stick around. We can transport some repair teams over if you need any more assistance. Other than that, give us a shout when you are capable of leaving.”  
“That shouldn’t be necessary. Thank you again Captain. Lutfield out.” With that the image was replaced with the damaged Odyssey class ship looming over them.  
“She’s lying.” Jack turned to his Alisha who passed him a Padd.  
“Agreed, that ship is pumping far too much power, right -” Her finger leading to almost dead centre of the schematic. “- here. A non-critical system. To be honest, I’m not even sure what’s there. But whatever it is. She’s not doing a good job of hiding it.” Alisha took the Padd back before disappearing to the back of the bridge.  
“How many of her crew have we transported back?” Jack was now intricately analysing the situation. The Lutfield was in remarkable practical condition, despite some exterior damage. Power was being dumped into one system practically in the centre of the vessel, but why the urge for her crew back when they had enough remaining to function? Did her crew know something they shouldn’t? Why bother with the charade if the Arlandria’s scans could see they were lying?  
“We still have a lot more people to transport back, Sir. Why?”  
Jack didn’t give an answer, but he did take the information onboard, “Shields up! Red alert. Clarissa, charge weapons and standby.” Jack held a button on his chair, “This is the Captain. All hands to battlestations.” The crew, who were understandably a little confused, scrambled to prepare themselves for whatever came next.  
Clarissa was first to relay the response Jack expected, “The Lutfield has charged her weapons, their shields are up and at maximum capacity. Which goes against everything her Captain said was possible.” She was poised and ready at tactical, perhaps a little bit too keen on the current developments, but Jack needed keen at the moment.  
“Ensign Thuania, send out a priority one communication to Starbase 728, tell them we are requesting assistance after responding to a distress call, then hail the Lutfield. Jack waited for a few seconds before the familiar nod was received and the bridge of the Lutfield reappeared. “Captain Elgar. You have some explaining to do.”  
“You first. Why are you pointing weapons at my ship?” This voice felt a lot less painted over than the last time they were talking.  
Jack was enjoying the fact he had worked out there was some form of rouse before they became victim to it. “Why are you lying to us, Captain? We can see your ships systems are not as damaged as you claim. So why try to hide that fact? Combine this with the power you are feeding to a seemingly random location, and we have ourselves a very important question to ask: How did you get here?”  
Her voice this time was rough, coarse and felt real, “I’m not allowed to say. And you are asking things you shouldn’t, Captain. Why don’t you stand down your weapons and leave this area like a good little Starfleet officer.”  
“That sounds and awful lot like a threat. It wasn’t was it? This is a Polaris class starship, in case your sensors are still ‘malfunctioning.’ Stand down.”  
The two-goliath craft hung in space, staring into each other’s souls. The potential of devastation held back by words alone. Thousands of people all resting in the balance. To Jack, this was what it meant to be a Captain.  
The smile Captain Elgar gave was vicious, “You are out of your depth here. One last chance for you to get out of here intact, and I’m still willing to leave your insubordination out of my report.”  
“You wouldn’t fire on another Federation ship unprovoked. Those are empty threats, Captain.” Why don’t you start with why you are here?”  
“We are reacquiring property of Starfleet.”  
“Property? There is nothing here except me, you and those creatur-“ Jack paused. “Those creatures are property of no one. Do you hear me.”  
“I said you were out of your depth. I also said ‘reacquiring.’ Listen Captain, I’m trying to do you a favour. Those creatures belong to Section 31 of the Starfleet charter. And we are not leaving them here.”  
“Section 31? There is no Section 31. Whatever division you think you report to, whoever gave you permission to keep those creatures as property, will be brought to justice. And after all, it appears we still have our little stalemate. As I’m sure you noticed, we sent a message to Starbase 728 and we’ll have ships here shortly. We can wait all day.”  
“But you see, Captain. We have ships already here.”  
The image vanished from the viewscreen as Jack got an anxious call from his right, “Sir, two vessels decloaking in flanking positions, bearing one-two-zero-point four, and two-four-zero-point five. They are Federation ships… a Galaxy and a Vivace class.” She looked at Jack dead in the eye, “We’re surrounded.”  
Jack simply stood. He pondered everything that was happening. A plan was required but this wasn’t an ideal situation. He might have been able to take the Lutfield on its own due to the structural damage but two more ships in the mix turned the situation into the Kobayashi Maru. A test given to all Starfleet cadets. A no-win scenario. Jack could run, save his crew, but the creatures would return to whatever tortured life they were fleeing from. Or he could try take on three ships at once: lose the Arlandria, the fifteen hundred people onboard and not to mention his own life in a moral last stand. Then after that the creatures still return to their captors. Or he could beat the Kobayashi Maru the only known way. By cheating.

Jack adjusted his uniform before calmly sitting back down. He had a plan, “Clarissa. If you would kindly re-adjust weapons lock to all three vessels. We have a family to save.” Jack spun the Captain’s chair around; it was smooth almost calculated spin to exactly where it needed to be. “Thuania give me an open channel, broadcast to the local area as a whole. I’m putting a lot of faith in intelligence here, so let’s see if we can’t get some help. I fear that may be the only way to beat this.” Thuania gave the nod. “This is Captain Jack Curtis of the Federation starship U.S.S. Arlandria. We regret to inform ‘Section 31’ that these creatures are now under the protection of the Federation, of Starfleet, of this ship, her crew,” Jack paused, “and me. Any action against these creatures will be met with deadly force. Consider yourself warned. Arlandria out.” Jack slid one finger across his throat as he signalled to Thuania to end transmission, “How did that come out, Commander?”  
“Well, you made it sound like we weren’t outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered and also surrounded. So, if that’s what you were going for. Good job.”  
Before Jack had a chance to answer Sam interrupted. “The Vivace class is moving toward the stunned creature, Sir.”  
“On screen.” The image changed to that of the smallest ship present, a nimble combat cruiser with weapons far beyond its size. As it approached the helplessly stunned creature a translucent blue coned beam originated from underneath.  
“They have locked a tractor beam on the creature.” Sam’s voice ran with outward frustration, “They are pulling it in. I think they called your bluff, Captain.”  
“What made you think it was a bluff, Lieutenant? Clarissa, target the Vivace only and fire phasers!”  
“Yes, Sir.” Her fingers flew over the controls before a flurry of orange beams of light joined the viewscreen, the Vivace’s surface rippled as the shots impacted their shields. “Their port shields are at seventy three percent. They have disengaged their tractor beam and are coming about.”  
“Sam evasive pattern ‘Pike Delta’ I want us between them and the creature.”  
“Copy that, let’s give them hell, Sir.” Sam’s tone had flipped and he leapt at the chance to show off his skills.  
Clarissa relayed the information as the ship took its first true hits, “Incoming fire from all hostile vessels. They are trying to keep us surrounded and they aren’t doing a good job.” The whole place shook and rocked as sparks flew from consoles and the crew fought the artificial gravity to stay upright.  
“Return fire! All phaser banks.” Jack was fighting over the sounds of destruction on all sides. “Clarissa! I want you to target the Lutfield’s damaged superstructure, photon torpedoes, dispersal pattern sierra.” Jack held his thought for a single second, “And fire!”  
The five red specks flew from the underside of the ship and across the debris littered arena of space. As they approached their mark each split into a firework of smaller dots before striking their target right as intended. The blue waves of shield absorbed as many as possible before giving in and letting the final few cause the twisted metal to sever and break, careering into space along with the now corpses that it had been protecting.  
A violent lurch to starboard sent crew to the floor, joined by pieces flying from walls as panels of various sizes and materials made a bid for freedom. When Jack could focus through the abuse the ship was undergoing, he saw the bright orange beams light up the sky in all directions.  
Clarissa’s voice was remarkably clear cut amongst the chaos. “Port shields are down to thirty two percent, Captain! They can’t take much more of this.”  
“Lieutenant, fire at will, quantum torpedoes authorised. Commander, divert power from the warp drive to shields,” Jack was focused on the viewscreen as he watched the exchange of phaser fire between the four vessels, “that should buy us some time!”  
“But Captain, without warp pow-“ Alisha tried to protest.  
“Just do it, Commander.” Jack shut her down as he continued to watch the display outside intently, orders flew, and reports flew back. There was debris littering the carpeted floor, glass from console tops, bits of broken metal and wiring along with some bodies, blood and tatters of clothing. Then Jack was hit from his right by something. A hit hard enough to put him down on the floor.  
Struggling to his feet he could see in what felt like slow motion, there was steam streaming from a broken pipe in the roof, and he watched as Sam dove from his chair to avoid the ceiling that dropped around him. Jack swept the blood from his cheek, as he leapt behind his chair to Operations. The ships shields were failing with the dorsal side down to five percent and most of the weapons systems being offline. Clarissa was trying her best, but this was a losing fight. Jack knew that going in. So did his crew. This wasn’t about proving a point, it wasn’t about noble sacrifice. It was about fighting for what was right. For what was just.

But then there was silence, not utter silence, but the kind that made Jack look away from his blood-soaked console and up at the viewscreen where he saw far less phaser fire, no bright red photons or the white flecks of quantums. He looked over to Clarissa who was still firing everything she could muster at the now disabled ships.  
“Lieutenant.” Jack suddenly realised how much pain he was in, “Hold your fire, stand down.” He tried to stand up straight but failed, probably due to the not insignificantly sized piece of something that had decided it wanted to live in his right side. He concluded it would be better to stay stood at operations then try to move, “What happened?”  
“Hostile vessels are disabled, Captain. All three without power. I think we may have made some friends.” Jack took a glace around, seeing the red strips of light flash around the bridge.  
“Stand down red alert. Damage report.” The red hue disappeared, and the atmosphere calmed as much as could be expected.  
“We have hull breaches on decks three through eight, another on twelve, seventeen, nineteen, twenty-four through twenty-eight and one on thirty-three. The port nacelle has sustained damage and is not functional; most phaser banks are offline, and our shields are inoperable. The long-range sensors are also down, so are the transporters and we have minor damage across the majority of the superstructure.” Alisha’s inhale sounded satisfying, “Next time I’m going to start by listing the things that still work as that’s a far shorter list.” She gestured at Jack who planned to return it the before his wound decided otherwise.  
“Thank you, Commander.” Jack gritted his teeth. “Hopefully our reinforcements will arrive.. well any time now would be ideal.” Jack could hear the hiss of turbolift doors but daren’t try turn his head to see. A few medical officers rushed past him towards the front of the bridge to tend to the wounded as Alisha hoisted Jack’s left arm over her shoulder. The pressure released was refreshing but wasn’t going to stop Jack wincing.  
Simultaneously, Jack felt someone crouch to his right side and fail to help with the pain, “If you prod it like that, it hurts. There are far more injured people here, please tend to them first, that an order.”  
The voice of the Denobulan doctor was a welcome sound, the species known for their kindness and curiosity, the Chief Medical Officer being one of two of the aboard. “Order refused. Luckily I outrank you in this department.”  
“Ben! What are you doing up here, get back to Sickbay, they need you down there.”  
“And you need me up here, now hold still.” Jack heard the Doctor opening a case before a sharp pain filled his body as the shard of bulkhead was yanked out. The sound of an array of lasers and doctors’ tools followed as Ben closed the luckily not-as-deep-as-it-should-have-been wound, “There. But you are not fixed, you need to come see me as soon as you get chance. You are the Captain, but you are not immortal. Commander, take care of him.”  
“I will do, don’t worry Doc. I’ll make sure he gets a trip down there after all this.” Alisha began to pace Jack back to the two command seats.  
“Oh, and Commander. I need you down there too, I haven’t seen enough of that head wound yet. Doctors’ orders.” Ben headed to a couple of other patients who were scattered across the floor, some clutching burn wounds of different degrees, some holding pieces of metal and glass embedded in various areas. Jack lost track of the doctor as he was deposited back in the Command seat.  
“I’m not sure the old chair would have survived you know. I always said it was too fragile. I may be alive because of this one.” Jack tried to smile at Alisha before realising rather painfully that it may not be the best idea to make himself laugh. “Sam, you still kicking down there?”  
“Just about. Did you see that dive? Honestly, I think that’s one of the best things I have ever done in my career.”  
“Don’t make me laugh Lieutenant, or I may genuinely die.” Jack stared out of the viewscreen for a moment, waves of different emotion washed over him. Feelings of relief and happiness followed by those of sadness, anger and grief for the death count he was already waiting to read. And not just from the Arlandria, but also from the Lutfield and her escorts. At the end of the day. They were Starfleet. Maybe not in ideals, but he couldn’t hold the thousands on those ships responsible. The role of the Captain was to figurehead the crew. He knew that part of Starfleet is being prepared to give your life.  
Before he could delve into morality further his attention was returned to the situation at hand. “Looks like we have a visitor, Captain.” Alisha was right. On the viewscreen was the biggest creature they had seen so far, in plain sight. Even though it appeared to lack any eyes Jack felt he could still see into the soul of the creature. It looked: grateful.  
“Can we get an open comm channel please?” Jack hoped to see Thuania at his station but couldn’t. He caught Alisha’s gaze going the same way before they turned back and found each other’s.  
“Not sure Captain. I didn’t see what happened.” She raised herself and moved to the console, “Channel open.”  
“Unidentified creature. May I extend the gratitude of myself and entire crew for your assistance in our survival. The people who treated you that way were not with us. They pretended to represent Starfleet, but they failed. If there is any sign you can give us that you understand us and acknowledge us. It would be an honour.” The anticipation rewarded as the creature began to rock from one side to another before rolling completely over. Jack smiled through any pain “I’ll take that as a yes. If we can assist you and your offspring in any way, we will. It would however, be helpful if you are willing to keep those vessels disabled until their occupants can be dealt with.” The creature performed another barrel roll before emitting a series of squeaks and squeals. Jack watched as it swum off to the last of its still stunned offspring.

It was a few moments before a voice crackled over the speakers,  
“Engineering to Bridge, are we done for the day? Because I would really like to be done for the day.” Harry’s voice was woven with exhaustion.  
Jack tried his best to weave his tone with some trace of positivity, “Let’s hope. How are things down there?”  
“The antimatter containment is secure which is good, but one of the plasma conduits to the port nacelle has ruptured meaning we aren’t going anywhere fast. Or at all actually. We have a lot of structural damage to the lower decks, but emergency forcefields are in place and all hull breaches are being contained. We are alive, but barely.”  
“It’s not much, but it’s enough, Chief. Bridge out.” 

The four vessels were now floating in a field of their own debris. Pieces bounced of the hull causing Jack to jump almost every time. All he could do was wait. He was still tallying up the death count in his head, he believed he was exaggerating, but a more logical part of him knew that he probably wasn’t. He could see gouges and valleys throughout the hulls of all the ships, ones caused by the orders he gave.  
“Sir, incoming warp signatures.” Liana’s voice cool to the ears. A picture showing empty space was then briefly filled by three flashes of light, each produced a Federation ship, the red of the nebula illuminating them as they swept through the cold black.  
“Incoming hail.” Alisha relayed as she headed back across the bridge to her chair.  
“This is Captain Seretny of the U.S.S. Cassidinia to Starfleet vessels, please respond.”  
“Onscreen, Alisha.” The image of a blue skinned Andorian was a luxurious sight, “This is Captain Jack Curtis of the U.S.S. Arlandria. Captain, I must ask you to place the crew of the three disabled starships under arrest. We are sending all data logs over to you now for analysis and so you can see what happened here.”  
“Alright… I have to say that is not exactly what I expected to hear, Captain. We’ll review the data. How may I ask are you keeping those ships disabled?”  
“We had ourselves a little situation, those three vessels were attempting to harm and I believe recapture creatures which have proved themselves to be not only sentient, but intelligent. They are the ones keeping those ships from blowing us out of the sky. Those vessels attacked the creatures, we protected them but as you can tell, we are in a bad way. We would greatly appreciate any assistance you could provide.” Jack was trying to sit up straight maintain his posture to conceal the pain still hanging down his right side.  
“Our medical facilities are standing by, and we can take your most wounded back to Starbase 728 as they are already awaiting heavy casualties.” Jack looked into Seretny’s eyes, this time he saw a Captain who was sincere, “Repair teams from all three of our ships are prepped for transport.”  
“Captain! The Lutfield is regaining power!” Liana’s words snatching the attention of most in the vicinity, the face of Captain Seretny replaced by the damaged Odyssey class vessel. Jack saw rows of lights flicking on along her curves as the blue glow of her engines returned.  
“Captain Seretny, you cannot let that vessel escape.” Jack could do nothing but watch as the ship forced itself back to life, it took a moment for him to properly acknowledge that he could begin to see stars through her hull. She then shimmered herself out of existence leaving only the speckled black in her wake.  
“She’s gone. Cloaked. We’ve lost her.” Alisha was combing her screen, but her face revealed she found no trace of the mighty starship. “Captain Seretny, I recommend you secure the other two vessels with tractor beams; they too are illegally equipped with cloaking devices. Arlandria out.” Jack admired her pose, her demeanour. She was fit for Command, that was no doubt. Most likely a better Captain than he could ever be, and he knew he was okay with that.  
“Commander. I believe we are both requested in the medical bay. Liana, you have the bridge.” Slowly aching to his feet, Jack took a step away from his chair and onto a floor coated in the cost of holding ideals.

Jack spent the next four days overseeing just enough repairs that the ship would make it to the Starbase in three or four pieces rather than collapsing in on itself the moment someone breathed on a bulkhead. Almost all of the critically wounded had been evacuated, but still no-one had conjured up a death count. However, Jack knew of a few that stung more than others. The top of that list being Ensign Sylvain Thuania. His potential, his future had been in Jack’s hands. He hated himself for what happened. But he didn’t hate himself for why it happened. During the hours he had spent wallowing with a single undamaged bottle of Romulan Ale; he thought that was a distinction without a difference. But those hours proved to him that he what he did, he did because he had no other choice. Well, there was always another choice, but he had no other option. He could have run, but if he had made that decision, he could no longer call himself a Starfleet Captain. What helped was when Jack walked corridors of reassurance. The crew were kind, supportive and not once did it feel like they were holding back feelings of resentment. The smiles felt real. He had cost the lives of a lot of people, but his gut felt that had he run; had he chosen to save himself and his crew by sacrificing those he had an oath to protect; the corridors would feel far less welcoming.  
By the end of the fifth day Jack received the greenlight from Chief Bardell. The conformation that the Arlandria was able to fly free once again. It was refreshing news, positive news. He couldn’t leave what had happened behind until he physically moved on. When Jack arrived on the bridge it was sparse, He saw Sam sat at the lonely front console, but his eagerness was obvious.  
“What do you say we get a move on, Lieutenant? I fancy a change of scenery. Plot a course, warp three.” Jack watched the Rosetta Nebula as it tried to climb up the viewscreen, its reds and whites curling across one another, the flecks and flares of colour covering the ship in a red coat.  
“Hopefully, a little more permanently this time too!” Sam paused. “Warp is ready at your command.”  
“Alright then. Hit it.” And with one simultaneous flick of Jack’s wrist, Sam tapped with one finger and the vessel flexed its wounded muscles.

A few hours passed, the Arlandria travelling at the low warp speed she was, but happy enough to take the longer, safer cruise and arrive intact.  
“How long, Sam?”  
“Less time than when you last asked about five minutes ago. So soon. Two minutes at most as port control has already cleared us for docking. Then we can finally get some proper rest at last. Have the boffins told you how long she’ll be in repair?”  
“They said that can’t say till they see the extent of the damage. But I wouldn’t expect her out for a month or maybe two. Why, going to make plans?”  
“Not sure, might head back to Earth if it’ll take that long. I don’t fancy being cooped up on a Starbase for a month. Plus, I haven’t seen my parents in a while and I think in light of recent events, I would like to do that. What about you, fancy a trip back home?”  
“Home as in Earth? It has been a while. Maybe. But only once the wounded are better, otherwise I think I’d end up guilting myself the whole time I was away. But go, enjoy a month of shore leave, I think you earned it, you and the rest of the crew.”  
“Oh, I’ll send you a postcard, don’t worry! – Dropping us out of warp now.” The ship held together as she slowed, the mushroom Starbase looming in front of them.  
“Starbase 728 to U.S.S. Arlandria, welcome. We have cleared you a space in the drydock, bring her in. Manoeuvring thrusters only from one thousand metres.”  
“Acknowledged. Arlandria out.” Jack placed his hand on the Lieutenant’s shoulder, “You’re relieved, Sam.”  
“Aye, Sir.” Sam stood and took a step away, Jack sitting in the gently spinning chair. He took a moment to adjust the collar of his uniform before placing his fingers on the warmed display. The seven hundred and fifty-metre-long behemoth fired up her impulse engines and slowly pushed her way to and through the colossal doors to the base. The feeling of safety only now taking hold over Jack as the shell engulfed the vessel. Eventually, as Jack felt the docking clamps engage, he brought the engine power down before the background hum was no more.  
“Couldn’t have done it better myself. Well, not by much.” He heard Sam’s chuckle before he felt a hand on his shoulder.  
Alisha’s voice was beautifully tranquil, “You are relieved, Captain.” Jack repeated Sam’s earlier movement as three officers then exchanged looks, “Drinks are on me, let’s go.”

Jack, for not the first time, placed the Padd down on the glass coffee table in front of him, before using his knee to rest his elbow whilst he ran his hand through his beard. It had been fourteen days since arrival at Starbase 728 and it had taken a week to get his number. Four hundred and ninety-six; three hundred and eight two of which were his crew, all dead. The rest of the fifteen hundred aboard the Arlandria survived. Every day he looked at it. He felt guilty for not feeling worse. Not that he would describe himself as happy, but he was rolling around the thought that he could have lost them all and whilst that was never the intent, it was the most likely outcome. He had placed his faith in the fact the creatures would hear his message, understand him and intervene. He knew that was the only way out, his way of cheating. In the end it worked. And to be sat there with those figures was heart-breaking, but in a strange, guilty way, Jack felt relieved. He knew it was wrong, he lost almost four hundred people. But where does that cost stand on protection against oppression of potentially an entire intelligent species. Jack took a moment, before rising off the sofa and meandering to the replicator. What he did find strange was how it was already beeping as he arrived, this confusion being answered when he realised it wasn’t the replicator at all but the entry chime to his quarters.  
Snapping himself back to reality he uttered, “Enter.” before pressing a button on the replicator and in a far more directed, lower tone, “Hot chocolate.” He turned as the doors hissed open, a man wearing what Jack thought was dark civilian clothing took a step inside.  
“Captain Curtis, I have an urgent matter I would like to discuss.” His voice was prim and his tone almost crafted.  
“Alright. As long as you start with who you are. I would appreciate that.” Jack took his hot chocolate; it took him a second longer than he would have liked as he refused to take his eyes away from the new arrival. His face wasn’t old, but it wasn’t young either and to Jack he appeared human. He simply stood until the sound of the doors triggered a response.

“That’s better. Now I believe you recently had a run in with an associate of mine, a Captain Elgar?” Jack stopped mid sip, before moving to place the drink down on the same materialled table, the clink of glass on glass gave Jack’s reply to the question. “I respect your reluctance to talk, Captain, may I have a seat?”  
“No. You may not.” Jack sat back on the sofa, picking up his drink, dragging the series of actions out, “Say your piece, then get off my ship.”  
“I know you do not trust us. But the situation is as follows: You have sensor data showing three Federation vessels utilising cloaking devices. As you are well aware that being a strict violation of the Treaty of Algernon. I am here to ask for your permission to take those logs. But you should be aware; we will get those logs either way.”  
Jack wasn’t looking at the figure anymore, he was watching the swirls and patterns his drink was producing. “You didn’t answer my question.”  
“Alright. I’m part of Starfleet’s Section 31. You and your crew ran across one of our field tests. Before you ask, we are sanctioned by Starfleet itself. Therefore, we will obtain those data logs as it is vital to our secrecy and integrity as an operating division. We will make sure that news of what happened is turned simply into folklore and mythos. You’re a good Captain, strong service record. But we have kept our division secret for a very long time now. You can try fight us, but we are protected by Starfleet’s highest. So, I urge you not to. Don’t waste your own time.” Jack had been doing his best to appear uninterested, but he knew this gentleman was right. What he had seen doesn’t happen without permission and without knowledge. You don’t get an Odyssey Class starship or the scientists smart enough to reverse engineer organic cloaks; let alone both, without someone’s permission.  
“Listen to me very carefully.” Jack rose to his feet; he didn’t even consider how dramatic it looked, “As you refuse to tell me who you are, let me retract the question; because you have claimed to belong to the same division that kept, hurt and contained sentient and intelligent creatures as property. Combine that with a conflict resulting in the deaths of over five hundred people. In actual fact probably more, but since the last ship fled using that aforementioned illegal technology, we will never know the true death count. Therefore, I do not care what your name is. You are not getting those sensor logs from me. You can however, get out or be thrown out. Choose.”  
“Seven hundred and forty-two.” It took Jack a moment to acknowledge what he said, “It has been a pleasure Captain. But as I said, please, do not do anything foolish. I’d hate for you get on the wrong side of us.” The figure turned and began to walk towards the exit.  
Jack picked up his hot chocolate before raising his voice to the gentleman, “It might be the losing side, but I’m still not convinced it’s the wrong one.”  
The gentleman stopped and tilted his head slightly to the Captain, “Good quote.” The doors hissed and Jack watched as he strolled out, a few moments passed before the doors slid shut and Jack collapsed back onto the sofa.  
It was a good quote. In fact, over the past few weeks Jack had held onto those words more than ever before.

“Personal log, stardate six-one-zero-three-three point four. It has been just over two months since the Arlandria went in for repairs and we were given the all clear to launch yesterday afternoon. A lot of the crew that left returned over the last three days and I have been back for a couple of weeks or so now, around the same as the new transfers. A lot of them seem to be settling in well, some haven’t served on a ship this big before, but I have been doing my best to smile and help where I can. I also got my postcard from Sam, he handed that to me yesterday when he returned, the little P’tak. As for the ship herself, I have to say she is looking good, and that’s before I have seen her in full swing. Although that should change very soon…” Jack waited for just a moment, looking around his newly decorated quarters, hot chocolate in hand, the windows providing a lacklustre view of the inside of the Starbase. “Damn, that would have been good timing. Computer, end log.” Jack sipped the last of his drink before putting the glass under the replicator. As he did so it dematerialised into thin air, the components most likely already forming a new glass elsewhere on the vessel. Jack went to take a seat by the window, the unnatural exterior light doing a stellar job to light the room. As he did so a short series of various tones echoed into the room, followed by a voice that emanated from around him.  
“Captain to the bridge.”  
His combadge was sat on the table in front of him, the false light reflecting off its buffed surface. Jack leant his hand down, taking it in his grasp, the action enough to trigger its touch sensitive response, “On my way, Commander.”

Jack situated the badge almost over his heart, the magnetic strip in his uniform grabbing it and sticking it the left side of his chest. He took one last look around the room, practically a full pirouette before the doors hissed open and he stepped out. The feeling was strange, familiar but unfamiliar. The carpet had some purple to it, simply two lines running along each edge, this was odd, but looked good. The whole ship was brighter, the lighting was more pearled and pretty, it gave off a strangely warm, pleasurable aura. Jack thought of it as the turning over of a new leaf. As he followed the lines winding their way down the corridor, he saw the new and the old, from the ship to the crew. They would give Jack the same acknowledgement they ever did, and he would pass it back to each and every one. When he reached a turbolift his heart began to race. It was beating far more out of Jack’s control than usual, but he did his best to ignore it as the lift went on its way. Then it got worse, probably because he was telling himself that he was ignoring it. He was nervous, or excited, or a small combination of both with a hint of uncertainty. Luckily it was a short enough journey that this time he could only fumble in his own mind for twenty or so seconds before the doors let out their customary sound and Jack stepped into a well-oiled machine. He gazed out at the crew, moving and talking, each one saying and doing a different thing without remotely interfering or distracting anyone else. The movements were enviously fluent.  
“Captain on the bridge!” They stopped. The crew stood to attention, conversations left hanging and tasks momentarily frozen in time.  
“As you were.” The moment unfroze and continued as if nothing had happened. He looked around, nodded to Liana and Jack then clasped his hands behind his back as he made his way with ease past consoles and down an insignificant step to his chair. Its current occupant stood then she gestured to it. The fabric itself was invitingly worn and about the only thing that was; the displays on its arms were new but the seat appeared refreshingly unique and familiar. Its most recent occupant sat herself down to the right as Jack eased himself into the chair. Right leg over his left. The chair turned with almost too little resistance as he faced the now short blue and silver haired Commander, “So? Where are we off to? Starfleet said go, they didn’t say where.”  
Jack watched a grin develop across Alisha’s face, “Well, I found some very curious reports of a binary system complete with four class M-planets and it’s only a couple of days away. Sounds to me like it is worth a visit.”  
“I couldn’t agree more.” Jack slowly spun around, “How about that Sam, think your talents extend that far?”  
Jack could see the Lieutenant Commander’s smile through the back of his head, “I think I can just about fit it into my schedule.” Sam briefly turned to reveal his expression did indeed match Jack’s own, “And I have the Commanders coordinates.” Jack saw Sam’s hands once more dance over the controls, “Course laid in, Captain.” Jack nodded to the helmsman before he had truly comprehended Sam wasn’t facing him anymore. Jack decided to try to play it off as he looked toward the back of the bridge.  
“Ensign Th-“ Jack paused before clearing his throat, “Excuse me. Ensign Williams, would you be so kind as to let port control know we are ready for departure?” Jack almost lost it. He very briefly fought himself to keep control. He could not change the past and refused to breakdown in front of new officers.  
Her voice was soothing, but it would take time for Jack to adapt to the change, “Aye, Captain. Port control has given us permission to undock.” She wasn’t a temporary replacement; she was an individual who earned her right to be at one of those consoles.  
“Thank you, Ensign. Sam, take us out, nice and slow, maneuvering thrusters then one quarter impulse away from the station once we clear the shell.”  
It felt good to be moving, it satisfied why he was out here, to be moving, to be exploring and discovering everything the galaxy had to offer, and they were ready to head back out there. Jack watched as the speckled black once again engulfed his ship,  
He could see Sam’s finger poised in position, “We are clear of the stations perimeter, ready for warp, Sir.”  
But before he answered the Lieutenant, Jack lightly pressed a button that was sitting on his chair, “Captain to all decks. A lot of you are new, a lot of you aren’t. But every single one of you are important, whether you have been here three years or three days. Today we are setting out into the black to do what Starfleet do. To explore. And hopefully, have some good fun along the way. Curtis out.” Jack held his breath for a moment of reflection, “Okay then. Hit it.” and with the flick of his wrist, they were gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading. It is much appreciated. And I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. This was my first complete story and I do plan on producing this as some form of series, so another one using the same crew is a goal for me in the coming future. (When free time from University work permits!)
> 
> As for this piece: I didn't chapter it; however, if you think it could do with some, please let me know where you would put a couple in. Feedback is welcome on all fronts too.


End file.
